Mosianna Milledge

[18thVirginia]

The biography of Mosianza Milledge has been posted in Ladies Tea, but I'm also posting here, as she was a cook, someone who had been a slave in Savannah, became a cook, and then a chef serving parties for the British elite in England.

We don't know exactly when Mosiana Milledge was born, but sometime in the mid 1800s and we know she lived in Savannah, Georgia. Many enslaved women were cooks during this time, but few traveled from slave to maid to chef, as Mossiana did, ended up for awhile in England, or owned several pieces of property. The staff at the Julie Gordon Lowe Birthplace in Savannah have researched Mosiana's story and some of these details come from their research.

We know the name of Juliette Gordon Low as the woman who brought the Girl Guides, which became the Girl Scouts, to the United States. Gordon Low had been born in Savannah, had lived in Chicago in the Civil War, and had returned to Savannah after schooling in New York and New Jersey. Juliette Gordon would marry William Mackay Low and spend some years in England, where her husband had gone to boarding school and college and where he would buy houses in Warwickshire and London. Juliette would become a celebrated hostess among the British aristocracy.



Mosianna and her husband

 

[18thVirginia]

Juliette Gordon Low

The Lows would bring Mosiana, their cook from the States, to England to serve some Southern dishes at their parties. Their house in Warwickshire had been renovated to look like a southern plantation. Milledge came over to prepare southern specialties like Smithfield ham, brandied peaches, pecan pie and beaten biscuits to guests of the Lows.



Wellesbourne House, the Low estate in Warwickshire in the 1910s
http://www.ourwarwickshire.org.uk/content/catalogue_wow/wellesbourne-wellesbourne-house

 

[donna]

18th Virginia thanks so much for posting this in Food Forum also. It adds to the other cooks that have been mentioned in the forum.. In particular I think about Abby Fisher.

 

[18thVirginia]

Brandied Peaches, New York Times recipe from 1951.




https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1012720-brandied-peaches

Apparently, brandied peaches were a good source of botulism--this NYT recipe showed how to preserve them more safely.

 

[18thVirginia]

And Edna Lewis recipe for pecan pie.



https://www.pinterest.com/pin/82261130668954072/

 

[18thVirginia]

Milledge brought her techniques for cooking cured ham, sweet potatoes and okra to her cooking in Britain. She taught another maid who became a chef, Rosa Lewis, her American South techniques.

"Mosianna initiated her into the secrets of making perfect rice and gave her many recipes for Southern cooking. She learned how to make waffles which were served with hot maple syrup from Vermont- an innovation to London society." http://www.gpb.org/news/2015/12/09/forgotten-women-part-8-mosianna-milledge

Rosa Lewis was a renowned cook and the owner of the Cavendish Hotel in London.


Rosa Lewis, wikipedia

 

[18thVirginia]

Civil War recipe for beaten biscuits
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/245727723398224924/

 

[18thVirginia]

A sweet potato pie recipe from Abby Fisher.

https://www.everythingpies.com/sweet-potato-pie-fisher-african-slave-1881/

 

[Anna Elizabeth Henry]

I found an interesting article about Mosianna here - http://www.gpb.org/news/2015/12/09/forgotten-women-part-8-mosianna-milledge

What's most interesting was the one person who commented about fried chicken and knowledge she imparted about it while in England - they never ever heard of frying chicken before! Can you imagine that?!

 

[18thVirginia]

I remember reading once that frying food was practical in the American South as the food could be fried early in the day, while it was still relatively cool and fried food will hold longer than food that's roasted. I've only used a wood stove in a cabin in the winter time, but it heated the kitchen well when it was 15 degrees outside, so I can imagine that it would have been quite hot on a southern summer day.

But, it still could be just a convenient explanation.

 

[donna]

Another thread for African cook.

 

[Shalom Hobbitess]

the food could be fried early in the day, while it was still relatively cool and fried food will hold longer than food that's roasted.

While that theory make be later speculation, it makes sense, particularly when it comes to chicken and the like. The coating and the frying process would retard spoilage more than other forms of cooking would, due to the high heat on the outside and the fact that frying removes moisture. Fried chicken was a common picnic food by the time of the Civil War, and it was usually fried in the morning and then hauled to the picnic site for the noon meal, in part because it would keep.